Elementary school residency -- 15% unverified

Paul Schott

Updated 10:40 pm, Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Fifteen percent of the school district's elementary school students have not yet confirmed their Greenwich residency for the current school year, with two weeks left for their families to file the necessary paperwork to meet the deadline.

Since July 1, the district has been verifying the residency of all pupils entering kindergarten through fifth grade this school year. Families must confirm residency by Oct. 1, or their children will be at risk of being expelled from the district.

As of Sept. 16, the district had not verified the residency of some 620 elementary pupils. Families of another approximately elementary 3,480 students, comprising 85 percent of the elementary population, have confirmed they live in Greenwich.

"We all need to keep pushing because we're some 600 students away from verification," Superintendent of Schools William McKersie said Tuesday. "We hope we're at 100 percent by Oct. 1. I think the main issue is the remaining families need to make the time to get here."

About 90 Hamilton Avenue School pupils have not yet confirmed residency, equaling 28 percent of the school's population. That unverified rate ranks as the highest among the district's 11 elementary schools.

Julian Curtiss School has the second-highest rate of unverified pupils at 19 percent, with about 70 students yet to have their residency confirmed. Cos Cob School recorded the highest elementary verification rate at 89 percent. Glenville School posted the second-highest verification rate at 88 percent. The other elementaries' verification rates range between 83 percent and 87 percent.

Allison Radzin, Hamilton Avenue's PTA president, said the high number of unverified students did not reflect a lack of support from school officials. She praised the school's principal, Cynthia Womack, and Tom Bobkowski, the district's director of school safety services, who assisted families with verification during an open house last week.

"Having Mr. Bobkowski there at our school, so folks could get their parent/guardian affidavits notarized right there and get the process taken care of on site at Ham Ave, was very welcoming," Radzin said in an email.

Other schools are also reaching out to parents who are non-native English speakers. Julian Curtiss Principal Trish McGuire has asked a Spanish-speaking staff member to call Spanish-speaking families to provide a "friendly reminder" about the verification deadline and to offer support in meeting that date. She has also asked a Japanese parent to call other Japanese parents with the same objective.

"I'm feeling positive about it," McGuire said of the verification deadline. "Some people wait until the last minute, and I'm hoping all our families make the deadline."

All district communications about residency verification are being distributed in English and Spanish.

Formerly, the district principally required parents of new students to prove their residency. Education officials also verify students' residency when they move from eighth to ninth grade. The district has confirmed residency for 98 percent of Greenwich High School ninth-graders, according to the district.

Residency checks require parents or guardians to provide each of the following:

Current lease/rental agreement signed by the landlord with the landlord's contact phone number (for tenants).

Two current utility bills.

State law and school board policy require Greenwich public school students, with the exception of children of district staff, to be town residents.

The district is making contingency plans, in case some families do not meet the deadline. Families of students whose residency is still unconfirmed by Oct. 1 will receive letters from the district, outlining a grace period and a final, definitive deadline for submitting residency paperwork, McKersie said.

If some students are still unverified after that extension, officials will start a process of "ending that family's relationship with the district," McKersie said. Administrators are also preparing for the prospect of unverified students coming to school when they are no longer allowed to attend.

A "small number" of families "out of protest" have refused to verify their children's residency -- a stance that McKersie advised them to abandon.

"That's not a wise decision," he said. "They're only putting their own children's education at risk. This is a process we have to go through to verify residency. I would urge any families out there who have not done this because they have taken a stand on this to not do that."

Families with questions, or who need additional information about residency verification can call the district's residency office at 203-625-7421 or email it to residency@greenwich.k12.ct.us.